BY TIMOTHY AGBOR, OSOGBO
A young man, Abdulgafar Ayanrinde, who claimed to have dropped out of the University of Ibadan where he studied Law, has been dragged before a Magistrate’s Court sitting in Osogbo, Osun State, for allegedly impersonating a legal practitioner and duping a Point of Sales operator.
Ayanrinde was arraigned by the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps and slammed with a two-countcharge bordering on impersonation and fraud.
When Ayanrinde was arrested and paraded by the corps in Osogbo recently, he had revealed that he ventured into criminal acts to spite his father whom he claimed to be a prominent Senior Advocate of Nigeria in Ibadan, Oyo State. He had disclosed that he dropped out of the university at 200 level (Faculty of Law), owing to lack of money.
The NSCDC prosecuting counsel, T. J. Ayayi, informed the court that Ayarinde paraded himself as a lawyer at the premises of the Osun State High Court on May 22, 2023 and also defrauded a female PoS agent of the sum of N150,000 at INEC Area, Osogbo on May 18, this year.
The charge read, “That you Ayarinde Abdulgafar on the 22nd day of May, 2023, at the Osun State High Court, Oke-Fia, Osogbo, Osun State, in the Osogbo Magisterial District, willfully represented yourself to one Abdulsalam Adbulhafeez Abiodun that you are a legal practitioner and did pretend that you are qualified to act as a legal practitioner, representation which you knew to be false and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 22(1) of the Legal Practitioners Act, Cap L11, LFN 2004 and punishable under the same section.
“That you (defendant) on the 18th day of May, 2023, at INEC Area, Osogbo, Osun State, in the Osogbo Magisterial District, with intent to defraud, did obtain the sum of N150,000. 00 (One Hundred and Fifty Thousand Naira) from one Adeoye Iyanu Seun on the pretence that you would transfer the said sum to her Polaris Bank Account, a pretence which you knew to be false and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 1(2) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act – Cap A6 L.F.N. 2004 and punishable under Section 1(3) of the same Act.”
Ayarinde pleaded guilty to the allegations. He was not represented by any lawyer in court.
The prosecutor urged the court to adjourn the matter in order for him to prepare for the presentation of facts in lieu of the defendant’s guilty-plea.
The presiding magistrate, M. A. Olatunji, adjourned till July 5 for presentation of facts.
